As others have said, “in-ear monitors.” However, it’s not technically about the quality. Earphones sit in the outer ear, while IEMs go at least a little bit into the ear canal. They do better with blocking out sound, which is better for audio quality, but sometimes you want to be able to hear things around you, so it’s a matter of context.

Also, while audiophiles can get wild with it (and there’s a lot of snake oil in that area), I just got some Salnotes Zeros for <$20 and they’re great.

Tankies: The word ‘tankie’ is meaningless because it gets overused by disingenuous people on the right.

Also tankies: Everyone who criticizes my position is right-wing.

It honestly reminds me of fascists saying that harsh criticism of Israel is inherently antisemitic. It’s a dishonest rhetorical game.

And capitalist regimes. The Russian Federation was literally founded by a betrayal of a reformist movement in the USSR, and China consulted with Milton Goddamn Friedman on their economy, ending up with billionaires. I even saw .ml users crying about Russian *oligarchs" having their assets seized (“stolen,” as they said), and unironically citing Matt Taibbi. Not even “back in the day” Taibbi, but literally The Twitter Files. Using bought & paid for corporate propaganda to make their point.

They’re just campists. I don’t want to run afoul of a “No True Scotsman” situation, but fuck, for people who seem to think they’re the Only True Socialists, they’re willing to drop socialism in an instant if it means they can be edgy dickheads on the internet.

even apart from audio quality, Spotify is just plain terrible as a music library.

For someone who lives in playlists, it might be fine. But I like to pick and choose albums and songs, and be able to sort the whole collection on the fly. Spotify, and unfortunately a whole bunch of the competition, will have three separate lists for “liked” songs, albums, and artists. Only want to save the studio tracks, and not the demos and live versions? Fuck you, you can like the album or not, it’s all or nothing! And the special edition is the only version we have! enjoy the solid hour of shittier versions of the songs you actually wanted!

I do appreciate the fact that the Cybertruck was so clearly designed by someone who had no idea how to design a car, and that it’s Musk’s pet project. It really drives another nail in the coffin of the idea that he deserves all the credit for the work his companies do.

Then again, his most die-hard supporters draw no distinction between ownership and labor. They’re also somehow able to look at a Cybertruck and think “Wow!” rather than “Wow, is this some kind of a joke?”

And will get stained by tree sap. You should avoid the extreme use-case of parking near trees.

It’s also why I love the fact that it has a tent accessory, despite being a car that can’t handle being outside.

First, I’d take a look to see if there are any games you really want to play to make sure they’re Linux compatible. ProtonDB is a great resource for this. The amount of games that work on Linux is actually pretty great, and the coverage is only increasing. That said, the biggest gap comes from games that require anti-cheat software, since that tends to require Windows. It sucks, since it’s a one-sided decision from publishers, and there’s not much to do besides keep Windows around, at least in a dual-boot. If you’re mostly a single-player gamer, you’re probably good to go. If you play AAA competitive multiplayer games, you’re probably out of luck. Best to check before getting started.

Secondly, I’d take a look at Nobara. It’s designed from the ground up to deliver what you want: a plug-and-play, out-of-the-box experience geared towards gaming. I can’t speak from personal experience, but I’ve heard good things. I’ve also heard good things about Pop_OS, which I think makes gaming a priority, too. Linux Mint is also great for offering a smooth transition, but I’m just not sure if there are any hurdles for gaming specifically.

I’ll also add that, while you might need to do some tinkering on Linux, even the regular distros don’t actually have it that bad. For the most part, it’s enabling an option on Steam, maybe downloading a package, maybe some settings here and there. Yeah, Windows still has it smoother, but it might be worth it to not have to fight Windows elsewhere, like with all the ads and privacy invasions. YMMV. For me, the juice is worth the squeeze, because the squeeze isn’t actually that hard once you get a little know-how. :P

Also… you can dual boot. Say you need Windows for some games, or don’t want to futz at all to get them running. You could do that to game or use whatever software only works with Windows, then reboot into Linux for more basic computing. Maybe it’s not worth the hassle of rebooting for you, but it’s yet another option if you don’t want to compromise on gaming, but also don’t want to deal with Windows the rest of the time.

Yeah. It can be simultaneously true that voting is a fundamentally broken system that will only allow for so much change, and that elections have life-or-death consequences. It can also be simultaneously true that both the parties are terrible, and that the Democrats are less bad.

I would give them more credit if they ever did any organizing, or even talked about organizing, but it’s just crabs in a bucket.

Oh, and in another thread, they were complaining about “theft.” It was the seizure of Russian assets to fund the defense of Ukraine. They were defending the foreign bank accounts of billionaires. Real clown shit.

Preach. Those people drive me up the fucking wall. And especially since their idea of praxis is being a dick on the internet and not voting, then claim to be the only true leftists.

Love it.

In a similar way, I also like to pull out “capitalism only works on paper.”

Seriously. If someone’s support is transactional, it isn’t worth shit. It’s not like having an okay position on some issues means you “get” to call for a little extermination, as a treat.

You don’t have to be perfect on every issue, but for fuck’s sake, there are hard lines when it comes to people’s right to exist, and live free. And even any decent takes she had are long past, since nearly ALL she does nowadays is rage tweet about trans people from her fucking castle.

Everyone. Everyone. The article is five SENTENCES long.

Two climate activists on Tuesday targeted Botticelli’s masterpiece “The Birth of Venus” hanging at Florence’s Uffizi Gallery, attaching images of recent flood damage in the Tuscany region on the protective glass.

(Emphasis mine. I also wanted to pause to mention that this is likely a sentence you wouldn’t have to click through to read, because it’s in the preview on Lemmy.)

Authorities immediately cleared the room and the two protesters were brought by carabinieri for questioning. Under a new law, the protesters risk up to six months of jail time.

The protest materials were easily removed from the glass without leaving a trace, and the room where the painting hangs was reopened within 15 minutes.

The activists from the Last Generation climate movement said they were protesting the Italian government’s failure to address climate issues that result in more frequent floods and landslides, including severe flooding in Tuscany last year that left at least six people dead and caused widespread damage.

I’m sorry, but complaints about any damage done by this protest aren’t exactly serious arguments.

I will, begrudgingly, when my friends run a game. Playing it is okay, running it is a nightmare, and I really don’t want to spend money on this game.

It’s a shame, because D&D has been a huge part of my life, but nowadays, when I want to play D&D, the best way to do it isn’t to use D&D.

And that’s if they even offer a physical version. I’m betting we’ll see a lot of digital-only content. And if you want to use it in the official VTT, I imagine the monetization is going to be even worse.

Correct about physical books, and I doubt physical books are going away. However, WotC has been leaning towards digital distribution, and hired on people with experience in software-as-a-service.

By all means, keep playing the version of the game you own! But it looks like the future of D&D might make a lot of content available to rent, not to own. Hopefully I’m wrong, but honestly, there are plenty of other games that let you own your stuff.

Yeah. On the face of it, it’s a good move, but the full story is far worse.

• They “updated” the OGL to be far more restrictive, impose unsustainable fees past a certain level of gross profit, and would grant WotC the full right to use, sell, and even license your work to others, irrevocably.

• They tried to de-authorize the original OGL retroactively, fully against the spirit and practice of the license, using some legal chicanery. While the OGL 1.0a was perpetual, it didn’t use the word irrevocable. (WotC’s rights to your content, of course, were clearly put in irrevocable terms).

• They only moved to CC-BY after public outcry. While the results were good, it was for PR, not out of the goodness of their hearts.

• There’s a new edition coming anyway. Unless they surprise me and put it under CC-BY as well, I’m betting they’ll try again to use a really restrictive license.

Also, even though WotC walked back from de-authorizing the OGL 1.0a, the damage was done. Every publisher I’m aware of that had used it has since moved away from it entirely, with surprisingly little change to the product.

True, but (a) IIRC, not all 5e books are even available as PDFs, and (b) D&D seems to be leaning towards a service business model. I doubt they’ll get rid of books entirely, but still, Paizo has a more straightforward “buy the thing, own the thing” approach.

I never said that, to be fair.

Of course there are conspiracies. People in power want to stay in power, and they’ll do shady things to get what they want.

That’s not the same as conspiracist ideation, which is a tendency to believe in conspiracy theories. Even as the article I quoted said, it can be harmful or pathological, but isn’t necessarily. It’s just when it happens to an extreme level. There’s a difference between rational fears and phobias; intrusive thoughts are normal, but can be frequent, uncontrollable, and distressing; conspiracies can be true, but then there’s buck wild nonsense like Q, “Cultural Marxism,” and this shit about the Superbowl. It’s not recognizing conspiracies when presented with evidence, it’s spinning conspiracy theories out of nothing, and viewing everything as part of a master plot, even if it doesn’t make any goddamn sense.

Research suggests, on a psychological level, conspiracist ideation—belief in conspiracy theories—can be harmful or pathological, and is highly correlated with psychological projection, as well as with paranoia, which is predicted by the degree of a person’s Machiavellianism.

wiki